My Life In Sequences
Leighton Pritchard
The most important thing I ever did
Informal education
Undergraduate
BSc Forensic & Analytical Chemistry (1992-1996)
Mostly chemistry (1yr industry)
Final year forensics
Final year honours project: proteins and computers
Body Fluid Analysis (1996)
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Postgraduate
PhD Bioinformatics (1996-1999)
Evolution of snake venom toxins
Neural network analogy of protein evolution
Drug site discovery algorithm (still in use)
Postdocs (1999-2003)
Systems Biology
Modelling of yeast metabolism
Directed evolution
The SCRI/JHI Years
Bioinformatician (2003-present)
Research Institute
Bioinformatician/Computational Biologist
Not a clear postdoc/PI distinction
Ineligible for many usual funding sources (e.g. RCUK)
BA Mathematics (Open University)
Bacterial Genomes
2003: Erwinia
Arrived at SCRI part-way through sequencing
Erwinia carotovora
subsp.
atrosepticum
(
http://sulab.org/2013/06/sequenced-genomes‐per‐year/
)
Global pathogens
Blackleg, stem-rot
Quarantine pathogen
First enterobacterial plant pathogen genome
Bell
et al.
(2004)
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
doi:10.1073/pnas.0402424101
First enterobacterial plant pathogen genome
32-author bacterial genome paper!
£250,000 collaboration between SCRI, University of Cambridge, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
All repeats and gaps bridged and sequenced directly
A single complete high-quality 5Mbp circular chromosome
3 person-years’ manual annotation